Yankees' September moves blow up in their face as form of Jasson Dominguez payback

Simply put: this is what happens when you don't take things seriously, which is something the New York Yankees have been doing five years running. They had the chance to make an impact roster move on Sunday and instead settled for run-of-the-mill transactions.

Rosters expanded two spots on Sunday and the Yankees made the decision to option Ben Rice and Will Warren while bringing up Anthony Rizzo, Scott Effross, Ron Marinaccio and ... a pinch runner in Duke Ellis. If you look across MLB, you'd see a majority of teams — even ones not in contention — making roster decisions with intention for the present and beyond.

The Yankees? They treated the roster expansion opportunities as if they were fun coupons. They made no meaningful changes despite having the chance to do so with Jasson Dominguez. They could've lit a fire and created some inspiration as the team continues to tread water below surface level. They are 30-37 after starting the season 49-21.

The result was exactly what you'd expect. They lost 14-7 (and the series) to the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday. The Cardinals, by the way, notched their first win ever at the new Yankee Stadium on Saturday night. The last time they won in the Bronx was 1964.

The Yankees let them ride that momentum to a rout on Sunday afternoon, and the two pitchers they called up got shelled to boot. Effross relieved Nestor Cortes, who was chased after four innings and five earned runs, only to give up two earned runs on three hits in 2/3 of an inning.

It's gotten to the point where even the most optimistic beat writers have no choice but to put the organization on blast. The Yankees will never make the obvious move, solely to spite the general public, it would seem.

While the offense wasn't the problem on Sunday, there's no denying the rest of the team needs an injection of energy, whether it's the panacea or the placebo. Dominguez isn't going to solve everything, but he'd provide a spark as he continues to heat up at Triple-A, a level where he does not belong.

Just to rub it in, too, the baseball gods sent a cruel message to Brian Cashman and the front office in the top of the ninth when Marinaccio served up a two-run homer to Lars Nootbaar — a .239 hitter with a .398 slugging percentage and nine homers on the year — to give the Cardinals their 14th run.

We wish we could analyze more. We really do. But the team is not in sync. Players who perform poorly are not punished or disciplined. Players who perform well aren't rewarded. And the urgency to take a roster with one year of Juan Soto on a World Series run is non-existent. We've written about this weekly for three months now. It's not fun. We wish it were different.

But it won't be until meaningful changes are made up top.